Month-long festival casts an eye on Brussels' post-war architecture

Post-Second World War architecture does not get a lot of love these days. The changes were jarring: the historical urban fabric was replaced by large scale infrastructure and buildings requiring the removal of entire residential neighborhoods.

For another reason, these projects coincided with the preparations for the 1958 World's Fair - the focus of which was progress and a new world based on new technologies. This spurred the use of new untested materials and techniques that in many cases caused the buildings to deteriorate quickly. The resulting facelifts have eliminated the original look of many of the buildings.

"The reason to show this post-war heritage is that at this very moment lots of these buildings are disappearing and some of the surviving buildings still contain impressive original interior elements but have become quite rare," says Koen Verswijver, project leader of the Brussels Biennale of Modern Architecture, which runs throughout October.

The biennale also focuses on residential architecture, for instance a house in Ganshoren where the architects took the latest concepts in housing design emanating from places like California - such as open plan - and adapted them to the classic Brussels townhouse.

Another surprising building included in the event is the airplane hangar at the small airport in Grimbergen. "Designed by self-taught architect and engineer Alfred Hardy in 1947, where he made very large pans with very thin concrete shells so small aircraft can be stored very efficiently as his design allows for big circular doors that can be opened in any direction so that each plane can easily exit the hangar," Verswijver explains.

Each Saturday in October, guided interior tours and bike tours will be offered with a different theme: gardens, the north-south junction, office buildings, university campuses, houses in Ganshoren and Laeken, and houses in Flemish Brabant. Each bike tour will include at least one interior visit and tours will be available in Dutch, English and French.

On Tuesday 11 and 18 October, short films from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s will be screened. "You'll be able to see not only the buildings but the cars, the clothes, the complete look of the city in those times," says Verswijver.

There will also be a lecture on Tuesday 4 October by Sven Sterken PhD, which will provide a historical overview of the period. And during the campus visits weekend (15 October), during the visit to the MéMé, architect Lucien Kroll, now 90, will give a talk on how he and his wife and architectural partner Simone "directed" the students to design their own university campus.

Brussels Biennale of Modern Architecture, throughout October. Photo: Philippe Debroe